I recently decided that I would like to listen to the Zac Brown Band. I'd heard them on the wireless, they sounded pretty tight, it was my kind of music (i.e. had a banjo in it), job's a good 'un. The recommended album was called The Foundation, so I nipped onto Amazon and there it was. Click. Fairly expensive at £7.49 (most of my music is so deeply unpopular that I end up buying the CDs for a few pence) but hey, I was feeling flush, and I did really want this album. A few days later it turned up, so I eagerly unwrapped it, popped the disc into the player, and pressed play. What the?
Turning over the back of the CD case, the first track was called "Solid Rock". Not so bad surely? Second track, "Come Thou Font". Eh? The Zac Brown Band are bunch of good ol' boys from Georgia that sing about Fried Chicken and other mature themes, or so I thought. I skipped down the track listing. "What a friend we have in Jesus". "Holy Holy Holy". "O Come O Come Emmanuel".
Shit.
Here, encapsulated in one simple photo, lies the very real danger of online shopping.
In a way it's rather unfair, it's just too easy a mistake to make. Zac Brown Band, The Foundation vs The Brown Band, Foundations. Even the reviews of the ever-so-slightly religious one are in fact meant for the other one, and thus it gets five stars and glowing comments. Sucked me in I can tell you. As you can tell from the photo I now own both, and the one I actually wanted is excellent, properly good. So good that despite the fact they're a support act for Springsteen later this summer at a gig I've got a ticket for, I'm also going to see them the following evening at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. I booked it online, so let's just hope I don't turn up and find it's the God Squad...
My original plan was to go to Dungeness early doors to see the Purple Herons and the Great White Egret. I was going to start at Denge Marsh for the herons, then have a bit of a sea-watch, have a quick look on the ARC pit for waders, and then come home. In the event my patch instincts got the better of me and I went out on the Flats. I got one Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus) for my troubles. I am afraid that this is a tale of what might have been. Guess what turned up Dunge? A Lapwing, but not vanellus..... Need a clue? What if I told you that it has a white tail? Un-bloody-believable. Merseyside, then Holland. Then a small gap, followed by Rainham, then Slimbridge, and now Dungeness. I wonder where it will go next? I know where I'd like it to go next....Still, not finding megas aside, Wanstead Flats was rather pleasant. Rather than bore you with a series of photographs of a White-tailed Lapwing, here instead are some photos of Thrushes and Crows from this mornning. I don't have time to write any more, I'm off to dig a wader-scrape in my back garden.
Song Thrush
Mistle Thrush
Jackdaw
Carrion Crow
Jay
